Read Time: 4 Minutes
The number one problem all businesses face is how to market themselves.
There are dozens of proven strategies that businesses use to scale, and almost all of them require a large investment upfront. If you are just starting out, chances are you have a tiny marketing budget or no budget at all. So how can you start marketing your business online?
I recommend you start with relationship marketing to help you create an organic audience online that you can scale by being authentic. By being authentic, you will build trust and familiarity with your audience, who you can slowly convert into your customers, and it won't cost you anything to start.
Relationship marketing is a strategy where you use organic social media engagement to market your products and services through building relationships with potential leads and distributors. The goal of this strategy is to create organic connections through content and organic engagement.
The best way to do this is to comment on your ideal customers' content or on posts of creators/businesses that are similar to yours. This way, you can organically get in front of your ideal customers and connect with them. My preferred approach is going to the comment section of large accounts and engaging on comments left by others.
This does two things. First, you can comment on their comment, giving you a fresh starting point for a conversation. Second, it allows you to find users who actively engage on content. Chances are, if they comment on large accounts, they will like and engage on your content once you connect with them.
This is the number one way to organically start building relationships with your ideal customers and other business owners in your niche that you can partner with down the road. When you are engaging with other accounts, make sure to add value or further the conversation. DO NOT just put flame emojis 🔥 or “I Agree” start a conversation and get to know other business owners.
This was the number one way I grew my business and my audience online. Every morning from 8 AM to 9 AM, I would go on both Instagram and Linkedin and start doing organic engagement on large social media accounts of creators like Gary Vee, Dan Koe, and Justin Welsh.
By providing value in the comments I left, I stuck out from the sea of flame emojis and 2-word responses. In turn, every person who commented on that post saw the comment and value I provided, leading to organic growth on my social media channels.
This is the best way to start building relationships online. As you do this daily, you will start to see other business owners doing the same thing that you can reach out to and connect with. Get to know them and grow together by sharing each other's posts and engaging on each other posts. This way, you form a relationship that helps you push your social media marketing and helps you form relationships at the same time.
1.) At 8 AM, I get on both Instagram and Linkedin, and I filter all posts to the most recent.
2.) I start to comment my genuine thoughts on each post, trying to be the first person to comment on the post so my comment gets more visibility.
3.) After commenting on a few posts, I go to the comment section of posts that have been live for a few hours, and I start commenting on comments that have provided value.
4.) As I comment on comments, I go to the profile of the commenter, and I like 3 to 6 of their posts
5.) Last, as I am doing this, I am getting responses from my previous comments at the beginning of the hour. I go back and respond to any comments I have received on my comments.
Every morning I comment on 10 to 20 posts, and then I comment on 50 to 100 comments. I find that this, on average, leads me to get 10 to 20 new followers a day, and 1 to 2 new connections that direct message me on a daily basis.
My new connections also like and engage on my posts, and share my content organically, leading to my future posts being pushed further. After doing this for a week, you will have between 50 and 100 new followers, a few new connections, and a growing social network.
Compound this by several months or even years, and that is how your favorite creators have built a following of 100,000+ followers. In order to grow your business online organically you need to be social on social media!
Relationships are the most important part of growing your business. Who you know is where you go! The more people you know, the more opportunities you will create for your business, and you will have access to more clients.
Hack the network and trust of your connections by getting to know them on a personal level and asking them for referrals. By doing this, they can refer you clients or customers that will be pre-sold on your product or service because they trust the person referring them.
By expanding your network through organic relationship marketing, you can quickly scale your business in a matter of weeks by building strong relationships. The goal is to be authentic and genuine and provide value through your expertise or products before reaching out.
Create strong relationships to create a strong organic referral system for your business to scale your organic reach without spending a dime! Expand your network so your connections organically share your content, and engage with it.
Lastly, focus on creating relationships with business owners and distributors that can send you work or share your content to reach bigger audiences.
Practice relationship marketing daily to grow your business online for free a little bit every day, and create a strong network that will serve you when you need help.
→This week’s action step: Start building your online network by commenting on 5 different posts every morning on your social platform of choice. After doing so, go comment on 10 to 20 comments on highly visible posts to start organically reaching new accounts!
Starting a successful online business starts with having a strong brand identity system. Whether you're new to business or you've been around for 100 years, you need a logo and branding assets to help you gain trust with your customers. I can help bring your business to life.
If you are a creative or a Design It Yourself (DIY) business owner, I have hand-drawn fonts and design packs to help you design branding materials, logos, and assets for your business or for client projects.
Every week, I send out a newsletter that breaks down the success of the most famous people, leaders, and businesses into systems you can use.
In addition to the Ancient Wisdom Newsletter, I have free guides that answer the frequently asked questions about design, online business, history, and how to become more successful.
If my branding services are out of your current budget, I also have a selection of designs you can license. You can use these designs in your business, on merch, or buy outright to use for whatever you want.
I publish a YouTube video every week covering different design, history, or business topics. On my channel, you can learn how to reverse engineer success one-on-one with me every week.
Every week, I post the best tips, strategies, and resources based on history to help you become more successful, happier, and healthier in less than 5 minutes.